Juicy Tidbits from LotRO Euro Dev-Chat

Turbine's devs took some time out to give the Euros some answers last night. I'll go through and highlight a few of the juicy bits. There's quite a lot of good stuff coming down the pipe it seems. Questions are in bold, the answers are italicized.

Hi, I have a very important question here! I realise it will be a future expansion/cotnent update, but is anything special planned for helm's deep, with it being a pivotal battle in the books, and a major part of the overall story?

Helm's Deep is a pivotal battle of that there is no doubt. Rest
assured that when we get there we will do our best to make the experience unique and awe-inspiring. Tens and I have bgeun to talk about how we can bring many of the large battles that exist throughout the war of the ring to the Online version of the game and we will be exploring these options as we move forward with development.

As with any type of development like this, it will take time, so we are not ready to commit to any hard dates, but we are thinking about this for the future.

This was the 1st question of the night, and it right away made me suddenly go, "I'm starting to wish I would have gotten the lifetime sub..." Helm's Deep, both in movie form and the novels is one of the most riveting and intense battles I've ever had the delight to be entertained by. I just hope they are indeed able to do it justice. Onto the next question...

When will the next large Region be released, e.g. Rohan/Gondor?

Hey there TRicKey! we've got some exciting plans coming up for the next year and beyond. We've just launched Evendim, our first major landscape addition. You can expect to see some new additions to the landscape in the fall (though not on the scale of Evendim) and a new region following that a couple of updates later.

I can't go into specifics just yet, as we are still in the stages of planning but we are very interested in continuing to expand out landscape.

Well, looks like Turbine's promise to keep new goodies coming is true. I wonder when in the fall we can expect the new stuff? I read in the Steefel interview over on CVG that they'll be opening more of Annuminas in the next update... Oh! Here's some housing tidbits put together for your reading pleasure. It's coming... and soon!

I would like to know how the player housing will be made. Do you have to build the house? And will there be new professions to do so?

Hi Chanelle! You won't have to build the house, but you'll be able to purchase it - and decorate it too!

at first I would like to thank you for this great game and the great experience we all have with it. Now the question will we get kith-housing too and what will it be like?

Hey Bronnwart. We are currently hoping to bring Kinship Houses online along with our Housing System in the fall.

If all goes well, you should see them then.

When will the Housing system released?
Tomorrow!
Just kidding
* LOTRO_Patience smacks Tens.
Don't listen to him.
* LOTRO_Patience mutters something about "devs" under her breath.
Housing is for Book 11 in the autumn.

That's some good news right there. :) I want a house in Middle-earth so bad it's killing me... literally, my doctor says that if I don't have one by January I'll likely croak. Thank God this patch is schedule for Autumn. :) Here's some goodies about Monster Play in the next Update, Chapter 10.

Question: What improvements to monster play have there been thought up for future content?

Enhancements to monster play are ever evolving. In the next update, you will see the inclusion of trolls on the monster side of the battle and rangers on the player side of the battle. The losing side will have the ability to get these elite units into the field and in early testing we have found that people are really enjoying the trolls and rangers.

Add to that some major changes to the dynamic nature of the Ettenmoors and you will hopefully soon see a nice improvement to things for the monster faction and a little more dread cralwing into the hearts of Freeps everywhere.

I just mentioned this over on Keen and Graev's blog. The system, from the sounds of it, is just like the one in place in City of Heroes. When one side is losing badly, they get help in the form of strong NPCs. I can't wait to see it in action. Should help the Monsters that always find themselves getting whooped despite their numbers.

I mentioned a few posts back that there was supposed to be some new gameplay in Chapter 10... here's a hint:

ive read on the forum about the new gameplay additiona in book 10. Is there any other information on that?

I think if we said anything more than we have already that response would be most fowl. Rhidden gets the nod for that line, not me.
But... it'll be really egg-citing.
*cluck*

Chicken-breeding? Kick the chicken? Cock-fights? Or what? Whatever it is, it doesn't sound that exciting for my tastes... I'm a Vegan. :P

And lastly for this highlight reel, my favorite part...

Is there anything likely to help the people who don't have enough time to find groups, or "gods forbid", enjoy soloing, to get through the xp wastelands that is the 45-50 zone?

From a content standpoint, our next two updates are focused on getting more 40+ solo content into the game, we hear you. :-)

Huzzah! Now I hope it takes me a bit to get to 40-ish and that the next update is out before I do. :)

There's plenty more in there too, for you all to read. Things like fishing still being made and that it WILL come, campfires being usable for cooking, crafters will be able to make decorations for the houses, more bank storage space, metalsmiths will be able to make a field repair item to repair on the go, and so on and so forth.

The more I experience of Turbine, the more I think they really listen to their playerbase's wants. Consider me impressed, and fully won-over as a customer if their promises are held.